Fae

Overview

The fae are old and they are dangerous, and both of those are simply true. What they are not is bound by a body of law — the rule-bound fae of folklore, hedged around by prohibitions they cannot break, is not what we have.

They are native to this plane. What sets them apart is that they found a way to build another one on top of it.

The Veil

The Veil is a magical pocket the fae created over this plane, and it is where most fae are born. They are born rather than made.

They built it to hold the magical species born on Earth, and it did not stay the size they made it — it expanded on its own, and demons moved into one of the levels that opened up. Time inside runs faster the deeper in you go, so a traveller who goes deep and returns finds more time has passed outside than they lived through.

The fae made it, but they do not own it. Anyone can enter or leave at a crossing.

Physical traits

Fae vary enormously in appearance and there is very little to generalise. Not all of them are beautiful in the traditional sense. Some have wings and some do not. Build, colouring and features range as widely as they do in any other people.

What every fae has is the connection to magic, and it runs deeper in them than in anything else.

Magic

Most fae carry an affinity for one specific thing, and it is almost always one of the fundamental forces. Which one is individual; that they have one is close to universal.

The fundamental forces fall into four groups, and a fae’s affinity may sit in any of them.

Elemental — fire, water, earth, and storm, which covers wind and electricity together.

Spiritual — soul, spirit and vital.

Physical — kinetic, the equivalent of telekinesis, and body, which covers speed, strength, endurance, density and healing.

Mental — will, time, thought and emotion. Will is the affinity behind the enslavement described below.

The magic reference page has the full account of what each of those does, along with the pure magics that created them. Nothing about the system is fae-specific except how reliably fae carry an affinity — that they have one is close to universal, where in other species it varies from person to person.

A fae is not limited to a single affinity, and can hold more than one.

Bargains and consent

Fae magic is not gated by consent. Consent changes what the magic is.

Take enslavement. A fae with a will affinity can invade someone’s mind and bend them without any bargain in place, and it will work — but it is a fight the entire time. The victim stays sentient and aware and strains against it for as long as it lasts.

Given freely, the same magic behaves completely differently. It settles over the mind gently, there is nothing to fight, and in most cases the person would not want to fight it once it is done. Consent does not unlock the magic. It turns a war of attrition into something closer to being carried.

The same holds for other fae magic bound up with bargains. Force will usually get a version of the result. The consenting version is a different thing altogether — cleaner, and harder to resist by its nature rather than by any rule.

Shared instincts

Fae share the connection to magic and a slight air of mystery. That is genuinely the whole list.

They are secretive, but not for its own sake. Knowing a fae’s magic means knowing its limitations, and knowing its limitations means knowing where they are weak — it is how someone outsmarts a fae, and how someone turns a fae’s own magic toward their own ends. The secrecy is protective.

Beyond that, temperament varies from one fae to the next exactly as it does in any other people. Kindness deliberately chosen and offered without hidden terms is one way to be fae. It is not the fae way of being.

Field notes

Fae breeds are far too numerous to list. Individual appearance, affinity and lineage all belong on each member’s own page.